Breakdown of coverages used vs Lions

[antdrewjosh]

Attempting to wrap our heads around the Steelers defensive coverages vs. the Lions in Week 8

The Steelers defense was torched by Matthew Stafford in Week 8, and we take a look to see if the coverages used had anything to do with it.

by Jeff.Hartman and 58Steel Nov 4, 2017, 10:41am EDT


Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Steelers defense entered Week 8 with the top ranked pass defense in the NFL. Say what you want about the ranking, but it was a fact before facing Matthew Stafford and the Lions on Sunday Night Football.


Fans of the black-and-gold know what happened in that game, to the tune of over 400-yard passing by Stafford, but what went wrong? Many are pointing directly at Keith Butler’s coverage schemes, primarily zone based defense, as the reason why the Steelers pass defense was picked apart. With that said, I put my best man, the Stat Geek 58Steel, on it to try and figure you just what went wrong.

Were the coverage calls even to blame?

This is what he came up with...

____

I almost scrapped doing this several times. I am a novice at identifying coverages. I attempted to simplify as much as possible, while still being able to garner some useful information from the data.


So, Stafford attempted 45 passes while being sacked 2 times. He also scrambled from the pocket one time. That would add up to 48 pass plays.

I'm eliminating the "shuttle pass" in the 2nd quarter (3:39), which amounted to a run play. Also not including a quick pass in the flat in the 2nd quarter (12:44). Difficult to ascertain any type of coverage on these.

Also eliminating 3 passes from inside the Steelers 5 yard line. 2 came from their 1 yard line on the goal line stand near the end of the 3rd quarter. The 3rd came from their 4 yard line on the goal line stand at the beginning of the 4th quarter. In all 3 cases, the Steelers played tight, "pattern match," bracket type coverage. Close man coverage on some receivers, but not quite. Anyway, coverage in such tight spaces is quite different from that in the "open field." Different enough that I don't want to include it in these numbers.


So we're looking at 43 pass plays. I broke the coverages run into the following categories:

Cover 2/3: a "spot drop" zone where defenders generally face the QB and drop to a specified area

Cover 6: a combination of Cover 2 to one side and Cover 4 (Quarters) to the other side. Too much to get into here. Quarters is a type of "pattern match" coverage where defenders may match up in man coverage based on the routes the receivers run

Zone Blitz with Pattern Match: this involved a pass rusher other than the typical (DL or OLB)) with the defenders matching up based on their "rules" for that call

Pattern Match: any coverage that calls for pattern matching (Quarters, 2 Read). Again, too much to explain here, any "zone" coverage that is not strictly a "spot drop" zone. I included here those pattern match coverages that did not involve a zone blitz.

Cover 1: man-to-man coverage with 1 deep safety

2 Man: man-to-man coverage with 2 deep safeties

Other: Lol. I could have put a few in here, with my limited knowledge on coverages. Fortunately, I'm only including one play here. The Steelers ran man coverage with Haden (safety help to his side), with zone t the other side. Wasn't sure where else to include this one. And it's possible there may have been others like it.


Okay, with all those caveats, here are the numbers I came up with:

Cover 2/3: 14 pass attempts, 12 completions, 157 yards, 11.21 YPA

Cover 6: 3 attempts, 2 completions, 50 yards, 16.67 YPA

Zone Blitz: 11 attempts, 5 completions, 62 yards, 5.63 YPA

Pattern Match: 5 attempts, 2 completions, 11 yards, 2.2 YPA, 1 sack

Cover 1: 2 attempts, 1 completion, 43 yards, 21.5 YPA

2 Man: 5 attempts, 3 completions, 81 yards, 16.2 YPA, 1 QB scramble for 11 yards

Other: 1 attempt, 0 completions

Overall, the Steelers did use some form of zone coverage on 35 of 43 pass plays (81%). According to Ray Fittipaldo's article, PFF has the Steelers playing zone 85-90% of the time this season. The usage in the Lions game seems to be right in line with that.

On the surface, the spot drop zones (Cover 2/3) look to have been largely ineffective. The completion % was 85%. One of the philosophies of zone coverage is to not give up big plays, even if you allow completions. Let's look at the attempts vs Cover2/3:


1st half-4 yards, 6 yards, 4 yards, 8 yards, inc, 25 yards, 18 yards, 11 yards

2nd half-18 yards, 12 yards, 8 yards, 9 yards, 34 yards, inc

While the zone seemed to be limiting the yardage gained early on, Stafford found his groove against it for some big gains. We can see the Steelers used Cover2/3 on 8 plays in the 1st half. This was out of 24 pass plays (33%). The second half saw 6 uses. This was out of 19 pass plays (31.5%). So about the same usage.

All of the 2 Man coverages came in the 2nd half. Looking at each more closely, we see some of the downfalls to using man coverage:

The first use of 2 Man was an incompletion on 3rd and 6. The next came on 3rd down and saw Stafford scramble for 11 yards. With all the defenders following their receiver, no one had their eyes on Stafford as he escaped the pocket(danger of man coverage vs mobile QB's).

The 3rd play had RB Theo Riddick beat Shazier out of the backfield. Again, with the other defenders following their receivers, the catch and run turned into a 23 yard gain.

The 4th time was disastrous, due to what I can only see as a coverage bust. Vince Williams inexplicably came off TE Eric Ebron, leaving him wide open. 44 yard gain.


5th time was on the 1st play of the Lions last drive. The wrinkle this time was dropping T.J. Watt to the middle of the field. He functions there as a "rat in the hole" to take away any crossing patterns. You may recall Watt tipping the Stafford pass here, coming oh so close to an interception.

The 6th, and last time, was 2 plays later, on 3rd down. Watt again dropped. Stafford displayed high level QB play here. As Ebron came open across the middle, Stafford still had to get the ball past Watt. Stafford looked to his right, turned slightly that way, and Watt moved in that direction. Stafford then threw across his body to hit Ebron in stride for 14 yards. Just have to tip your cap to a great QB there.

...

The pattern match and zone blitz seem to be more effective. Down, distance, field position, etc., all factor in to that. So it's not as easy as pointing to these numbers and saying one coverage is "better" than others. I did want to do this charting, however, to at least get a flavor of what the Steelers ran vs the Lions. I hope it was informative.

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.c...rages-vs-the-lions-in-week-8-keith-butler-nfl

 

[Djfan]

Brady is somewhere drooling over his opportunity. Cool shades won't adjust, and won't build a team to beat the cheats.

Let's hope for that miracle. This really could be our year.

 

[slashsteel]

To me they are mixing things up and then evaluating what works best. By the time the Pats come to town they should have a solid read on what is working with this group of men and what isn't.

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[BLITZ]

That is a long read to say qbs
like Stafford and Brady can destroy zone coverage

 

[Drink IRON City]

Brady is somewhere drooling over his opportunity. Cool shades won't adjust, and won't build a team to beat the cheats.

Let's hope for that miracle. This really could be our year.

So if the STEELERS come out and beat the CHEATRIOTS,.........that will be a miracle????? Stafford is as good a QB as t*mmyb*y and I'm just wondering how many TD passes Mathew had against us???? How many TD passes has t*mmyb*y had against us this year????? I know we have to play the game and we will but why the hell are you giving them the victory before the game is ever played?????? If the STEELERS lose will you be the first here to "TELL ME SO???"" How about if the STEELERS win, what will you do??

I hear this all the time and I know the past games and the all but JEEPERS, let's give our boys a chance.





Salute the nation

 

[Stryker]

With Hayden and Hilton, there is no way they pick us apart with their slow white receivers this year.

 

[Punxsutawney]

Stafford is as good a QB as t*mmyb*y

No. Just no.

 

[Coryea]

With Hayden and Hilton, there is no way they pick us apart with their slow white receivers this year.

If we play zone they will. Teams that beat NE or challenge them play man, even if you don't think you have the personnel, you have to try. KC played man in week one. Even coming out in n the draft as a 6th round pick Brady was said to be a QB that would excel vs the zone.
What worries me is this week Haden said man to man is the easiest defense to learn and thinks they can go to it at anytime, if that's true why didn't we switch to it in the 2nd half vs Detroit?

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[Black & Gold Bleeder]

To me they are mixing things up and then evaluating what works best. By the time the Pats come to town they should have a solid read on what is working with this group of men and what isn't.

[/URL]

I once believed whole heartedly that Iraq had WMD's because Colin Powell went to the UN Gen. Assembly and told them that they did. He wouldn't make up some **** and send us all into harms way for no good reason.

 

[Stryker]

If we play zone they will. Teams that beat NE or challenge them play man, even if you don't think you have the personnel, you have to try. KC played man in week one. Even coming out in n the draft as a 6th round pick Brady was said to be a QB that would excel vs the zone.
What worries me is this week Haden said man to man is the easiest defense to learn and thinks they can go to it at anytime, if that's true why didn't we switch to it in the 2nd half vs Detroit?

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I personally think we have to mix strategies to confuse Brady. You can't stay straight zone or straight man, or you will get gouged with a mismatch, one way or another. The key is to make him think we are doing it one way pre snap, then after the snap we actually are doing it another way. This creates confusion for our pass rush to put him on the ground. That's how you beat Brady. By hitting him. You can do that playing man or zone blitzing.

This group of athletes are also rangier, faster, and better equipped to go zone, that's why we are currently successful at it. Davis, Shazier, Watt, and Dupree all have the speed and football acumen to excel and make plays underneath, which is where Brady can be exploited. Williams has even improved. Burns, Hilton, and Hayden have also shown the ability to leave their man to play the ball in man, and have shown they can stick with the right receivers in zone as well.

You act like the Detroit game was a failure? It was pure LeBeau bend but don't break D. It was the game plan and it was executed perfectly. Oh no, they got yards. Football teams will earn yards, it's a game and the other teams will execute. Then they went 0-20 on plays in the red zone, to score a TD. Your D is doing something right if the other team is going 0-20, trying to score a TD in the red zone. Especially since this D has not been successful at stopping teams in the RZ this season. I'd say that was a huge point of emphasis for this D, and I will take not giving points over giving up yardage any day of the week if we get these results.

 

[Litos]

Brady doesn't have Staffords mobility. Rush with a 3 man front with either OLB crashing his side and the other helping the short pass and yeah, sometimes send Hilton or Davis too

 

[stillwright]

With Hayden and Hilton, there is no way they pick us apart with their slow white receivers this year.

If we play zone and our pass rush doesn't get to Tommy. His guys will get open. Hopefully we bump or grab them at the line and disrupt them a bit. Anything to stop the pitch and catch Brady does to us yearly.

In the end I don't care what Butler does as long as it works. And if it isn't working. Make a F'n adjustment at some point whether it works or not at least try.

 

[stillwright]

I personally think we have to mix strategies to confuse Brady. You can't stay straight zone or straight man, or you will get gouged with a mismatch, one way or another. The key is to make him think we are doing it one way pre snap, then after the snap we actually are doing it another way. This creates confusion for our pass rush to put him on the ground. That's how you beat Brady. By hitting him. You can do that playing man or zone blitzing.

This group of athletes are also rangier, faster, and better equipped to go zone, that's why we are currently successful at it. Davis, Shazier, Watt, and Dupree all have the speed and football acumen to excel and make plays underneath, which is where Brady can be exploited. Williams has even improved. Burns, Hilton, and Hayden have also shown the ability to leave their man to play the ball in man, and have shown they can stick with the right receivers in zone as well.

You act like the Detroit game was a failure? It was pure LeBeau bend but don't break D. It was the game plan and it was executed perfectly. Oh no, they got yards. Football teams will earn yards, it's a game and the other teams will execute. Then they went 0-20 on plays in the red zone, to score a TD. Your D is doing something right if the other team is going 0-20, trying to score a TD in the red zone. Especially since this D has not been successful at stopping teams in the RZ this season. I'd say that was a huge point of emphasis for this D, and I will take not giving points over giving up yardage any day of the week if we get these results.

Classic Dick defense? Really? Hell. Is Dick even playing the classic Dick defense anymore? That **** needs to be put into the pasture for good. If we go into a game hoping th get those stops in a game that we did in Detroit to win the game we will lose more often than not. I would imagine when they drew up the game plan they didn't envision holding detroit zero TD on all those trips they had inside the RZ. I imagine if you asked the coaches if Detroit made it into the RZ that many times we would lose the game. Please stop it with the "Classic" Dick defense. I pray we don't go into games with that philosophy anymore. In fact I will get down and prat right now.

 

[jitter77]

Not taking away from our redzone defense, but to not give up a TD in 6 chances involves a lot of luck. If the Pats get into the redzone 6 times and have 400 yards passing they will have some TDs. Couple this with our own offensive problems in the redzone something has to change. I just do not understand why we do the same damn thing everytime and expect it to go different. We have a better pass rush this year, but Brady still gets rid of the ball too quick. I think we still need to keep a soild line to apply a little pressure. I would go for 4 on the line or at least 4 rushers every play. Let Harrison and Watt do what they do best and find someone else to play coverage. Haden should be playing man at least and hilton / burns should either play man or definitely a tighter zone. Why cant they have the safety play closer to the CB in the cover 2 or cover 6 or whatever. How many passes did Stafford drop between the CB and safety? Another problem with the zone against the Pats is Gronk. To beat our zone Gronk just has to run a simple seam pattern. I just know if we come out and start getting torched and do not try something different this board will go nuclear.

 

[Punxsutawney]

I personally think we have to mix strategies to confuse Brady. You can't stay straight zone or straight man, or you will get gouged with a mismatch, one way or another. The key is to make him think we are doing it one way pre snap, then after the snap we actually are doing it another way. This creates confusion for our pass rush to put him on the ground. That's how you beat Brady. By hitting him. You can do that playing man or zone blitzing.

This group of athletes are also rangier, faster, and better equipped to go zone, that's why we are currently successful at it. Davis, Shazier, Watt, and Dupree all have the speed and football acumen to excel and make plays underneath, which is where Brady can be exploited. Williams has even improved. Burns, Hilton, and Hayden have also shown the ability to leave their man to play the ball in man, and have shown they can stick with the right receivers in zone as well.

You act like the Detroit game was a failure? It was pure LeBeau bend but don't break D. It was the game plan and it was executed perfectly. Oh no, they got yards. Football teams will earn yards, it's a game and the other teams will execute. Then they went 0-20 on plays in the red zone, to score a TD. Your D is doing something right if the other team is going 0-20, trying to score a TD in the red zone. Especially since this D has not been successful at stopping teams in the RZ this season. I'd say that was a huge point of emphasis for this D, and I will take not giving points over giving up yardage any day of the week if we get these results.

Teams definitely have to mix up coverages against Brady. A huge reason why Brady owns the Steelers is that he knows they're going to be in zone every ******* play. It's like shooting fish in a barrel for a QB as alert and smart as him.

With that being said, it really doesn't matter what a defense does in the secondary unless you can get to Brady with a four-man rush. The guy just never makes errant throws or decisions unless he's physically forced into them.

 

[Punxsutawney]

Not taking away from our redzone defense, but to not give up a TD in 6 chances involves a lot of luck. If the Pats get into the redzone 6 times and have 400 yards passing they will have some TDs. Couple this with our own offensive problems in the redzone something has to change. I just do not understand why we do the same damn thing everytime and expect it to go different. We have a better pass rush this year, but Brady still gets rid of the ball too quick. I think we still need to keep a soild line to apply a little pressure. I would go for 4 on the line or at least 4 rushers every play. Let Harrison and Watt do what they do best and find someone else to play coverage. Haden should be playing man at least and hilton / burns should either play man or definitely a tighter zone. Why cant they have the safety play closer to the CB in the cover 2 or cover 6 or whatever. How many passes did Stafford drop between the CB and safety? Another problem with the zone against the Pats is Gronk. To beat our zone Gronk just has to run a simple seam pattern. I just know if we come out and start getting torched and do not try something different this board will go nuclear.

The ultimate question is whether the Steelers four-man rush is good enough. That's how you beat Brady, as the Giants and Broncos showed multiple times in the post season. Heyward did not play in last season's AFCC game, and he could have made a difference.

Unfortunately, the Steelers are probably going to have to beat the Patriots twice to get to the Super Bowl. Once to get homefield in January and finish them of there.

There's no way they beat that team in New England in January, IMO.

 

[SteelerFan448]

The ultimate question is whether the Steelers four-man rush is good enough. That's how you beat Brady, as the Giants and Broncos showed multiple times in the post season. Heyward did not play in last season's AFCC game, and he could have made a difference.

Unfortunately, the Steelers are probably going to have to beat the Patriots twice to get to the Super Bowl. Once to get homefield in January and finish them of there.

There's no way they beat that team in New England in January, IMO.

It's really important they get Tuitt back and healthy. IMO, they rushed him back after his Week 1 injury and cannot do it a second time. I would also be concerned about Watt getting fatigued as the season progresses. He may be their most prepared rookie they've drafted in years, but until you play an NFL season, you truly don't know how your body will hold up. We're entering the second half of the season now and Harrison hasn't had many snaps. As long as he's effective, it would not be bad to save Watt's legs a bit for the December stretch and the playoffs.

 

[Drink IRON City]

I personally think we have to mix strategies to confuse Brady. You can't stay straight zone or straight man, or you will get gouged with a mismatch, one way or another. The key is to make him think we are doing it one way pre snap, then after the snap we actually are doing it another way. This creates confusion for our pass rush to put him on the ground. That's how you beat Brady. By hitting him. You can do that playing man or zone blitzing.

This group of athletes are also rangier, faster, and better equipped to go zone, that's why we are currently successful at it. Davis, Shazier, Watt, and Dupree all have the speed and football acumen to excel and make plays underneath, which is where Brady can be exploited. Williams has even improved. Burns, Hilton, and Hayden have also shown the ability to leave their man to play the ball in man, and have shown they can stick with the right receivers in zone as well.

You act like the Detroit game was a failure? It was pure LeBeau bend but don't break D. It was the game plan and it was executed perfectly. Oh no, they got yards. Football teams will earn yards, it's a game and the other teams will execute. Then they went 0-20 on plays in the red zone, to score a TD. Your D is doing something right if the other team is going 0-20, trying to score a TD in the red zone. Especially since this D has not been successful at stopping teams in the RZ this season. I'd say that was a huge point of emphasis for this D, and I will take not giving points over giving up yardage any day of the week if we get these results.

Cope, you hit a home run here. Many here are stuck on the yards given up but forget the fact that NO touch downs were given up, how the **** could that be????? t*mmyb*y and Mathew Stafford BOTH have abilities but Stafford's arm stregnth is better than t*mmyb*y's. Shut t*mmyb*ys headset off at the sanctioned time, amongst other things and you see a little different GOD out there. When was the last time he was "DRUg" tested (I would thing James Harrison would let him cut in line infront of him).?

Our "D" isn't last year's or the years before, watch the games. We have improved in many places and it shows on the field. Faster / better / experience / all contribute and yes there are weaknesses but we cover those pretty well too. Sit back and enjoy the season as it's shaping up quite nicely. **** t*mmyb*y and his entire organization !!!!!!!!!!





Salute the nation

 

[Punxsutawney]

It's really important they get Tuitt back and healthy. IMO, they rushed him back after his Week 1 injury and cannot do it a second time. I would also be concerned about Watt getting fatigued as the season progresses. He may be their most prepared rookie they've drafted in years, but until you play an NFL season, you truly don't know how your body will hold up. We're entering the second half of the season now and Harrison hasn't had many snaps. As long as he's effective, it would not be bad to save Watt's legs a bit for the December stretch and the playoffs.

No doubt.

They need both Heyward and Tuitt to beat the Patriots.

Also, I'm personally wondering how much they're "saving" Harrison with the Patriots in mind. They unleashed him late in the game against the Chiefs when they absolutely needed a stop, and he was a monster.

Amid the terrible coverage and tackling in last season's AFCC game, the pass rush was nowhere near good enough.

As it pertains to Watt, I think they like what he gives them in coverages. He can get deep in his drops and his length is an asset as it pertains to narrowing passing lanes toward the sidelines.

 

[Coryea]

I'm sorry but we didn't go into that game planning to let wr's run open every where, we didn't plan to give up 400+ yards passing. Our redzone defense wasn't ranked very highly heading into the Detroit game, so I guarantee our plan wasn't to let them move the ball between the 20's.

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[jitter77]

Brady is great against the blitz and great against our zone. I think we should have a basic rush up front with a few blitzes thrown with man coverage behind. Turn Harrison loose even if he is part of the basic front 4.

 

[Coryea]

Classic Dick defense? We were top 5 how many times under him in yards per game? Doesn't sound like what we did vs Detroit, it's crazy at how many people just brush him off like he was some bum coach.

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[Coryea]

Brady is great against the blitz and great against our zone. I think we should have a basic rush up front with a few blitzes thrown with man coverage behind. Turn Harrison loose even if he is part of the basic front 4.

Couldn't agree more Heyward, Hargrave, Tuitt, and an OLB, you need Hargrave to push the middle of the pocket and not allow Brady to step up

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[Stryker]

Classic Dick defense? We were top 5 how many times under him in yards per game? Doesn't sound like what we did vs Detroit, it's crazy at how many people just brush him off like he was some bum coach.

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Yup Classic Dick Defense. I suppose you don't remember it. Keep the plays in front of you, tackle the catch, don't let up any big plays, and the O will make a mistake, or the D will make a play. And the D did. 20 freakin times in the redzone. It's not luck. I watched the game. It was execution, pressure, and coverage to go along with some pretty kick *** tackles in the gaps. I don't know what you thought you saw in the Detroit game, but I saw a D that didn't want to get scored on.

Also, Brady ain't lighting it up on good defenses this year. Good thing he gets to practice against his 32nd ranked D every week...

 

[Djfan]

Right. If marsha has to wait a second he panics and grounds the ball. But we have to get him to not have the soft zone gift. I'm not convinced that the Steelers coaching staff wold make such a change.